What Are We Now?
by smolemolga
Summary: Yu and Rise start dating, but Yosuke just can't seem to be happy for them. Yu/Yosuke. Yosuke POV


I beat p4 and started writing this 4 years ago but I just went back to golden and decided to start it up again. This has spoilers up to December in-game. Not much to say other than Yu/Yosuke is my otp 4lyfe. Enjoy

xXxXx

 **Sunday, September 25th, 2011**

Yosuke always stayed up past midnight, whether the Midnight Channel was on or not. His friends knew this, even though none of them had ever really called to chit-chat, which is why it surprised Yosuke when Yu called him that night.

He was working on his homework quietly as per usual, so as not to wake up Teddie, when the call came. Teddie was surprised as well, since he wasn't used to having his "beauty sleep" disturbed. Instantly, Yosuke thought to himself, Is the Midnight Channel on tonight? But he knew that wasn't possible; it had been bright and sunny all day.

"Hello?"

"Who is it?" Teddie whined. Yosuke held a finger perpendicularly to his lips, signaling him to be quiet.

"Hey, what's up?" Yu responded.

"Nothing much, just working on homework…"

"Is it Sensei?! Tell him Teddie says 'hiii!'"

Yosuke rolled his eyes and smiled. "Teddie says 'hi.'"

"Haha, hi Teddie. Hey, Yosuke, can I talk to you…privately?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, I guess." He stood up to go into his bathroom as all the possible worst case scenarios went through his head: There's been another murder. Nanako's dead. I have cancer.

"I'm in the bathroom now. Sooo…what's up?"

"Okay, well…don't tell anyone, all right?"

"All right…?"

"Rise and I are dating now."

Well, that was definitely not on the list of generic worst case scenarios, but it might as well be.

"Oh."

"Yeah, I know." Yu laughed gently. "We've been keeping it to ourselves, but I thought you should be the first to know." That made Yosuke happy yet miserable at the same time.

"Well…I'm definitely surprised, Partner."

"Haha, yeah, I know…"

"Why so secretive about it?"

"Oh, y'know…don't want everyone to think I'm dating her just because she's _the_ Risette, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Yeah, so…I just wanted you to be the first to know," he repeated. Yosuke could tell Yu was ready to hang up, but he still had some questions left.

"How long has it been?"

"Oh, like…a little less than a month?"

Yosuke immediately tried to think of what happened in the last month. Mitsuo Kubo was arrested and convicted of all the murders, and they had rescued Naoto Shirogane from the TV world. They were just waiting for Naoto to recover now.

How could they even find time to get to know each other, let alone see each other? Better yet, how could they think of anything other than the case? The case was all Yosuke thought about, aside from school and Junes.

"Ah. Well, I'm happy for you two."

"Thanks." Yosuke could hear a smile in Yu's voice. "We'll tell everyone else when we're ready."

"Okay."

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Yosuke."

"You, too." And the call ended.

Yosuke sat in silence on the edge of his bathtub. Why did this bother him so much? How was this bad in any way? Yu was happy, and everyone else on the team would be happy when they heard, too. And yet, Yosuke just couldn't be happy.

"Yosuke? Are you still in there?"

Teddie must've been listening through the door, and when he couldn't hear Yosuke anymore, he wanted to make sure everything was okay.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm still in here."

"Can I come in?"

"I'll be out in a second."

"Okay…well, I'm going back to sleep. Goodnight."

"'Night."

But Yosuke didn't come back out. He stayed in there for the rest of the night, eventually ending up laying inside of the bathtub, his phone balanced on his abdomen. He couldn't decide what was worse: that Yu and Rise were dating, that he was upset that Yu and Rise were dating, or that he didn't understand _why_ he was upset that Yu and Rise were dating.

It felt like hours before Yosuke finally fell asleep…if he ever actually fell asleep at all.

 **Thursday, October 6th, 2011**

Outside of school and the Investigation Team meetings, Yosuke didn't see Yu much after that night. Every time he tried to make plans with him, he always had other plans, most of the time with Rise. So, Yosuke just stopped hanging out with people in general, and started working at Junes more often to make up for it. Everyone slowly grew concerned, but none of them did anything about it.

When Naoto finally recovered, they were finally able to talk to him—er, her—about what happened. Of course, just like everyone else, she had no recollection of the kidnapping or being thrown inside the TV.

The more they talked, the more Yosuke wondered, Was any of this really worth it? It had been months and they had made virtually no progress. Were they all just wasting their time? Was this just a game they would never be able to win?

"Why are we even trying anymore?" he thought out loud while they were all hanging out at Junes. Everyone was immediately silenced.

"Uh…Yosuke?" Chie responded reproachfully.

"We thought Mitsuo was the killer, but now we're just back to Square One. What's the point anymore? We've gotten nowhere!"

No one knew what to say. Yosuke always seemed the most determined out of all of them, but now that he was starting to lose heart, how were the rest of them supposed to keep going on?

Everyone tried to move on by basically ignoring what Yosuke had said, but they all heard loud and clear. Everyone went home quietly, sincerely disheartened.

That night, Yosuke received a call from a number he didn't recognize.

"Yosuke-senpai?"

"Uh…who is this?"

"This is Naoto-kun. I got your number from Chie-senpai." Why did Chie give her his number? Why did Naoto ask for it in the first place?

"Okay…what do you want?"

"I'm concerned about your sour attitude. I don't want you bringing down the whole team."

Yosuke blinked, astounded by her words. Who did she think she was? "Excuse me? You just got here and you just automatically assume you're part of the team? Yu and I have been here from the beginning, and—"

"Is that why you're so upset?"

"Huh?" Yosuke was caught slightly off guard with that comment. What did she mean by that?

"That makes so much more sense…"

"What are you talking about?!"

"Are you upset because Yu-senpai and Rise-chan are dating?"

"How did you know they were…?"

"I didn't, but you just confirmed it for me."

"Huh…?" This girl wasn't making any sense. "Again, what did you want?"

"You already answered my questions. Thank you. Goodbye, Yosuke-senpai." Click.

What was up with that? Naoto was just being a little brat, pretending that she knew what was "best for the team" that she wasn't even an official member of yet.

...But she right. Was he acting this way because Yu and Rise were dating? Was it

because of...Yu?

 **Friday, October 7th, 2011**

The next day, Yu told everyone to meet up at Junes as soon as school let out. Once they all met up, Yu was ready to say something.

"I have an announcement to make. Rise and I are dating." Everyone gasped and cheered, all seeming to talk at the same time.

"I knew it!" Chie exclaimed.

"Aww, you two are so cute together!" Yukiko cooed.

"I'm happy for you guys," Kanji said with a smile.

"Oh my, Sensei!" Teddie squeaked.

"Congratulations," Naoto said.

And Yosuke said nothing.

"Aww, thanks everyone!" Rise was beaming.

Yu was smiling, until he took a look over at Yosuke. They made eye contact. And then Yosuke understood. It was no coincidence that they announced this today; Naoto had called Yu and told him about their conversation.

After only a split second, Yu's eyes darted away and he was smiling. But he understood. Completely.

As suspected, Yu called Yosuke that night.

"Hey Yu. What's up?"

"Yosuke, we need to talk."

"…Did Naoto talk to you?" That was only a rhetorical question to Yosuke.

"Yeah, and apparently she needed to. Why didn't you talk to me?"

"About what?"

"About me and Rise. Obviously you have an issue with us dating; I just don't understand why."

"I seriously have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yosuke!"

Yu getting angry? That was new.

"What?!"

"We need to talk. In person." Yosuke was about to ask why, but he had already hung up. Less than a minute later, he received a text from Yu. "I'm coming over."

After waiting patiently, Teddie asked, "What's going on?"

"Yu's coming over." By the tone of his voice, Teddie knew not to push it any farther than that.

When Yu arrived, Yosuke stepped outside to talk to him. Even though it was raining, he didn't want to risk anyone overhearing this conversation.

They didn't make eye contact; they didn't even face each other. They leaned against the stone wall that guarded Yosuke's house, looking out at the passing traffic a safe distance away. They were considerably calmer than they were on the phone, and they could now talk easily, rationally.

Nothing had been said yet. They were thinking-possibly too hard-about what to say. What needed to be said anyway? Why did Yu come over anyway?

"Why exactly did you come over?" Yosuke tried not to make his question sound accusatory; he honestly wanted to know.

"I try to settle matters like this in person." That was totally like Yu.

"Makes sense." And more silence.

Why was it so hard to talk to Yu now? Before he started dating Rise, they could talk about practically anything, even down to where he kept his porn. But now...everything had changed.

But why? If they were really friends to begin with, that shouldn't have changed anything. Why did it matter that much?

Was Yosuke...jealous?

He didn't want to admit it, but it made sense. He was upset because he couldn't spend as much time with Yu as he was used to-wanted to.

But it was more than that. Yosuke recalled the night he received the news. He had been up all night, a bout of insomnia hitting him on the onset of the news. He was...upset, when he should've been happy. _He_ was the one who gave Yu such a hard time to get a girl, and he finally got one. And Yosuke didn't.

But that's not why he was upset. He wasn't jealous of Yu for having a girlfriend, he was jealous of...no. He couldn't say that, _admit_ that to himself.

"Yosuke?"

Yosuke suddenly realized that he had been quiet this entire time. Apparently quite a bit of time had passed since the last thing had been said.

"You're the one who came over..."

"Hm," Yu grunted, as if to say, "point taken."

Yosuke suddenly got the urge to do something really, really stupid, and he knew that. He knew that it would jeopardize his relationship with Yu, with Rise, and possibly the entire Investigation Team.

But he just couldn't help himself.

First, he turned his head towards Yu, and Yu looked at him. Before he could change his mind, he got up from leaning against the wall and grabbed Yu's face, and, eyes closed, smashed his head into Yu's, their lips meeting.

And, surprisingly, Yu didn't move away immediately. That wasn't what Yosuke was expecting. He was almost...disappointed. He needed to know his behavior was ridiculous and unacceptable. He needed Yu to hate him. _That_ is why he did this; not to act out on a fantasy (though that was surely part of it), but mostly to know that this was just...wrong. And Yu's reaction wasn't helping.

After a little over a second that felt like an eternity and a half, Yosuke pulled away.

"Goodnight, Narukami," he almost whispered as he turned away, not even bothering to look back at Yu before heading back through the gate.

"Goodnight, Yosuke..."

Even after a minute or so of standing in the entryway, Yosuke's heart was still pounding. Why did he think that was a good idea? What made him think that that was the best thing to do in that situation?

Apparently everything showed on his face, because Teddie commented on it immediately. However, Yosuke simply ignored him and locked himself in the bathroom. Just like that night before-was it really that long ago?-he fell asleep in the bathtub.

xXxXx

Kind of an awkward place to stop bc there's more written and I didn't know where to split it up. Anyway do that review thing thanks *thumbs up emoji*


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